Reasons why you're not hired
- You don’t know what you're being interviewed for
Prospective employers want to know that you have made a conscious choice to interview for their position, that you have researched the company, thought about whether the role is right for you and given thought to how you will sell yourself as the best person for the position. Turning up without knowing anymore about the company than the agency has told you, having no understanding of the role or why you should be offered the position is a sure way to receive a 'thanks but no thanks'.
- Your CV has swallowed a thesaurus
Sure, it's great that you know how to use shift + F7 in Word. But this isn’t what a recruiter wants to know. Say what you mean, say it in your own words and be prepared to explain every single sentence on your CV. I once interviewed someone who stated they were looking for an opportunity in a "highly professional corporate services environment". When asked about this further they explained that there were looking to move from retail work to working in an office, any office would be great. If you carried out administration for a project say that; don't say that you administered a project.
- You can't back-up statements on your CV
A candidate stated on their CV that they were "committed to their on-going professional development and seeking out new learning opportunities". When questioned upon this statement, they could provide no examples of how they manage and track their development, what their development areas are, or what learning opportunities they have sought out. All they could tell me was that they were happy to muck in with the team and help with anything that needed doing; which is fine and great to know but it wasn’t what they said on their CV.
A further piece of advice when it comes to writing your CV, please don’t do what one candidate did and copy your current job description onto your CV and then when asked about a particular job role say "I haven’t done that yet but will be trained on it soon".
- You assume the job is yours
I have found this to be particularly common with internal promotions, especially when the candidate has carried out a period of acting up. I remember studying for my GCSEs and being told to imagine that the examiner knows nothing, explain yourself in full and remember the examiner doesn’t know you and how well you may do in class. This is true for interviews too. I have interviewed candidates whom I know can do the job and do it very well, but they haven’t told me that in the interview and the notes do not support a decision to give them the job.
- You didn’t have even one question?
Interviewing is a two-way process and it's your opportunity to find out what you need to know about the role and the company. It always surprises and confuses me when candidates do not have even one question to ask. You're going to be spending around 8 hours a day working here, plus travelling time, you're going to have to work in line with our values, culture, develop your career and carve your future and you don't have a single question? You might be in other recruitment processes and unsure about which role is right for you, you might have particular criteria and goals that you would like an employer to help you with, and you still have nothing to ask? I have a question for you to consider…do you want this job?
